Autodesk Futurist Redesigns the Hyperloop Using New Materials, Construction Methods

PHOTO courtesy of white clouds

Autodesk's redesign of Hyperloop requires specialized equipment to weave transit tubes out of carbon-fiber composite materials while maintaining the tubes' original 7-ft, 4-in. diameter.

PHOTO courtesy of white clouds

The proposed new design for Hyperloop's transit tubes weaves them out of one ring of carbon fiber and then pinches it into a figure 8, forming two independent tubes.

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A design software leader is rethinking the construction methods and materials for Hyperloop Alpha, the high-speed mass-transit proposal that shoots passenger-filled capsules suspended on air cushions through low-pressure tubes. The new design pushes for yet-to-be-realized advances in construction and composites technology.

"We're almost obliged to check it out," says Jordan Brandt, Autodesk technology futurist, about the company's responsibility as an industry leader to weigh in on the Hyperloop proposal. "I'm a mad scientist," adds Brandt, who created the 3D cloud collaboration technology Glue that got the attention of Autodesk, which acquired both his former company, Horizontal Systems, and Brandt himself.

To get the ball rolling within Autodesk, Brandt did a rough redesign of serial entrepreneur Elon Musk's original proposal. He changed the two parallel, horizontally placed steel transit tubes to a single carbon-fiber-weave circle that is pinched into a figure eight to form two vertically stacked tubes. Brandt shared his idea with Autodesk's design experts to improve upon in Autodesk Fusion, a 3D CAD program that allows for design collaboration.

The idea of using composites such as carbon fiber for the tubes is tempting because it would extend the distance between the tube's support piers to 130 ft from 100 ft and reduce the probability of pressure loss inside the tube, says Brandt. Musk's original proposal called for steel sections to be trucked into place and joined with welds, creating hundreds of thousands of opportunities for leakage along a proposed 350-mile-long route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Brandt's construction method would use a rolling braiding machine to weave the tubes in place from spools of fiber material and fuse them with resin as they pass out of the braider. He says Musk's original concept was spot on with the physics but thinks some of the construction methods can be improved upon. He adds that Musk's openness at giving the idea to the public to improve is exactly what Autodesk is trying to encourage. Beyond the groundbreaking innovation required for Hyperloop, Brandt's own suggestion needs a lot of innovation to move from digital design to reality.

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Autodesk Futurist Redesigns the Hyperloop Using New Materials, Construction Methods